Easy-to-Make Wood Frames

Not long ago, I saw some weathered wood frames at Hobby Lobby and immediately fell in love with them. They were perfect for my kitchen projects - well, almost perfect. They were $20 each, and that was more than I wanted to spend - especially since I needed two. But I really liked the way the frames were made. As Gus and I looked at them, I realized that they looked pretty easy to duplicate. He said as long as I didn't need mitered corners, he could do it. Who needs mitered corners? Not me! We discussed what we'd need - I measured the cabinet where they would hang, did some sketches - and we were off to Home Depot.

Here's what we used to make two frames (approx. 12X20, 20X20):

8' lengths of 1X2 furring strips (we didn't use it all)
4 ring hangers (to hang the frames)
8 flat corner brackets (1 1/2" - to anchor inner boards together)
handsaw
Liquid Nails or wood glue (optional)

As with all projects that involve measuring and cutting - measure twice, cut once - and be very careful with the saw. Did I mention measure twice, cut once?

Since there would be both an "inner" and "outer" frame, we started with the inside. I knew I needed these sections to measure approximately 12X20 and 20X20, so Gus measured and cut four 20" sections, two 16" sections, and two 8" sections.

Gus sanded the cut ends just a little, but since these are supposed to look weathered and rustic, we left most of the roughness and imperfections as they were. We had L-shaped corner brackets to connect the corners, so we laid out the boards (making sure that the sides that were to be the "front" were facing down on the table), and attached the brackets at an angle. Why at an angle? Well, these were the smallest brackets we could find, and they were too big to anchor the corners tightly if they were placed straight. At an angle, the screws were closer to the joint, making it more stable. So if you use smaller brackets, I'm sure you could just attach them normally.

We also added just a bit of Liquid Nails to the joint - making sure that none of it got on the front or sides of the wood. (Glue might affect the treatment you put on the wood.)

Ta-da! That was pretty easy!

Now we had to make the outside frame, which was a little trickier. As we all know, 1X2's really aren't 1" by 2". So rather than measure, measure, and cut - and hope everything worked out, we opted to lay the sections of wood for the outer frame along each side of the inner frame - then mark and cut them. Since the two outer sides would be the same length as the inner sides, we measured and cut those piece first.

Then we placed the two outer side pieces along the sides of the inner frame, and positioned the top outer piece along the top of the inner frame with one end lined up with one outer side. Then Gus marked the top outer piece where it needed to be cut. Then we repeated this with the bottom outer piece.

With all of the pieces now cut, we needed to put them together. We decided to assemble the outer frame separately, then place it over the inner frame. For these pieces, I didn't mind if there were little nail heads showing - so Gus drilled two pilot holes (so the wood wouldn't split) into each end of the outer side boards...

added a bit of Liquid Nails to the inner joints...

and then nailed the side pieces to the top and bottom pieces.

Now for the tricky part. We needed to attach the outer frame to the inner frame, but the outer frame has to be off-set just a little so that there is a "lip" to hold the items that will eventually go in the frames.

Gus drilled pilot holes for the nails (again, I don't mind that the nail heads show because the whole idea is for this to look rustic, rough, and handmade). To make sure that there was a little "lip" on the back side (to hold what's going inside the frames), I held my UD Super-Saturated Lip Color box against the front of the inner frame as a "spacer" - it was the perfect size!

And the last thing we needed to do was attach hangers. We used ring hangers - and they will show above the frames, but you could easily use a hanger that mounts on the back of the frame.